USA > Indiana > Wabash County > History of Wabash County, Indiana, Volume 2 > Part 25
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58
Digitized by Google
1
676
HISTORY OF WABASH COUNTY
of Mr. Haas, she married Archibald Kennedy; James L .; Meredith H .. now deceased, and at one time an attorney at Wabash; Mary A., de- ceased, the former wife of David Todd; Martha J., deceased; Parker, deceased; Elmer E., deceased; Amanda F., who is Mrs. William Wallace, and lives in Florida; Harriet A., who married F. M. Jeffery, and is deceased; Maria, who is Mrs. Ed. McCammon, a resident of Beaumont, Texas; Sarah J., deceased, who married Thomas C. Miller; Dr. Gideon P .; Charles, who lives in Peru; and one that died in infancy.
Dr. Gideon P. Kidd spent his boyhood and early youth on the old farm in Miami county. A district school afforded him the substantials of his early training, and he subsequently attended high school in Wabash and in Peru, and the old academy at Wabash. During several years of his young manhood he divided his time between teaching and farming. He taught school in Miami county in 1867, and again was employed for similar services in 1869. In 1871 Dr. Kidd began the study of medicine under the direction of Dr. A. J. Smith at Wabash. The following October he entered the Chicago Medical college, where he was graduated M. D. March 11, 1874. After a brief practice at Kellers Station or Rich Valley, he was married on October 15, 1874, to Mabel F. Dicken, a daughter of Dr. J. L. Dicken, now deceased.
Until April 15, 1875, Dr. Kidd practiced in association with his father-in-law, and at that date established his home at Roann, where he is now in the fortieth year of his active and continuous practice, and has served more than an entire generation in his professional capacity. Dr. Kidd is a member of the Wabash County Medical Society, the State Medical Society, and the American Medical Association. During the presidential administration of Cleveland he was a member of the county board of pension examiners. At the present time he is serving as secre- tary of the town board of health. While at one time a Democrat, Dr. Kidd is now allied with the progressive party.
Dr. Kidd and wife have the following children: Marie, who married Charles Mooney, of Montgomery, Alabama, and their children are Helen, Margaret, Thomas, Catherine, Marie; Earl E., who died at the age of seven years; Clara, wife of R. H. Guinnup, living at Marion, Indiana, and they have a child, Gordon R .; Herman Dicken, who married Florence Lang, resides at Hamilton, Ohio, and has a daughter, Marjorie; Mabel, who is a graduate trained nurse; Dr. James G., who graduated in the literary department from the University of Indiana in June, 1911, and from the medical department in 1913, was interne in the City Hospital at Indianapolis and now practicing with his father in Roann. Dr. Kidd was one of the first physicians outside the city of Wabash to employ an automobile in attending his patients, and in his profession as in politics he is a true progressive.
ELLIOTT S. SMITH. Among the old families of Wabash county both the Smiths and the Barnharts have long had an influential and useful part in county affairs. Their lives have as a rule been led along the paths of quiet agricultural industry and prosperity, but they also were
Digitized by Google
Digitized by y Google
1
i
HOME OF MR. AND MRS. ELLIOTT S. SMITH AND FAMILY, PAW PAW TOWNSHIP
Digitized by
ELLIOTT S. SMITH
MRS. ELLIOTT S. SMITH
Digitized by
1
-
Digitized by
677
HISTORY OF WABASH COUNTY
identified at different times and places with commercial affairs, and in whatever capacity they have appeared they have been good citizens and have done their full share for the enrichment of community life. Elliott S. Smith, known familiarly among his neighbors as "Ell," is the owner with his wife of one hundred and sixty-six acres on the east side of the Mount road, about four miles northeast of Roann, in Paw Paw town- ship.
A lifelong resident of Wabash county, Elliott S. Smith was born east of Manchester in Chester township on his father's farm, November 5, 1864. His parents were David and Margaret (Yohe) Smith. David Smith, who was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, was married at Canton, Ohio, to Margaret Yohe, who had come from Washington county, Pennsylvania. After some years as a farmer near Canton, Ohio, David Smith moved to Wabash county, locating on the old Morphew farm east of Manchester, but subsequently sold that place and moved to the line between Miami and Wabash counties, and his land was located partly in one county and partly in the other. Besides his farm in that locality, David Smith conducted a general store and served as postmaster at Niconza. Fourteen years were spent there, followed by his removal to Roann, where the local elevator was under his proprietorship until sold to Lucas & Shillenger. His farm on the Miami county line had been traded for another place in Paw Paw township of Wabash county, near the home now occupied by Elliott Smith. While he was in the elevator business at Roann his son Barnett managed the farm. David Smith was a business man of much energy and enterprise, and after giving up the elevator engaged in the dry goods trade at North Man- chester, as head of the firm of Smith, Sala & Arnold. Subsequently he took over the interest of his partners, and with his son David and son- in-law W. H. Ridgeley continued business under the name D. Smith & Company. That was a popular store under the management of Mr. Smith, and in 1886 he sold it to Helm-Snorf and Watson, and being then an old man lived retired until his death in 1888 at the age of seventy-five. His widow survived him until 1906, and was eighty-four when she answered the last call, dying at the home of her son Elliott.
Of the twelve children of David Smith and wife, nine grew up and are mentioned as follows: Maria, deceased, who was the wife of W. H. Ridgeley; Michael, who was a soldier during the war and was killed in the South and lies in the National Cemetery at Chattanooga; David H., who was also in the war; Susan, who married H. H. Smith, no relative; Barnett; Mary, Mrs. A. G. Ebbinghaus; Melissa, wife of William H. Ward; Elliott S., who was the youngest of those who reached maturity ; and Ida, Mrs. A. B. Miller.
Elliott S. Smith grew up in Wabash county, his youth being spent in the different localities where his father had his activities, attended school both at Roann and at North Manchester, graduating from the high school of the latter place. Unlike some of his brothers, Elliott Smith did not take kindly to merchandising, and preferred the work of the farm, which has been his regular vocation for many years. Vol. JI-14
Digitized by y Google
678
HISTORY OF WABASH COUNTY
By his marriage on April 12, 1888, two of the prominent old families of Wabash county were united. Mrs. Smith before her marriage was Edith Barnhart, daughter of the late James H. and Martha Ann (Mount) Barnhart. James Harvey Barnhart, who died on the old Mount farm in Paw Paw township, June 21, 1913, aged nearly sixty-nine years, was born at the forks of the Wabash river in Huntington county, July 11, 1844. His grandfather Barnhart came with two brothers from Canada just before the Revolutionary war, and at the outbreak of that struggle between the colonies and the mother country the two brothers returned to Canada, but grandfather Barnhart enlisted with the American troops and rose to the rank of captain. It is said that the commission of this patriot, containing the signature of George Washington, is now in the possession of a cousin living in Huntington county. Grandfather Barn- hart, whose home was in New York state, had three sons-George, Dave and Christopher; and two daughters. The daughter Anna married Charles Haywood, at whose home her father died in Huntington county, Indiana, and Mrs. Haywood had three sons, Chancy, George and Nahan, and four daughters, Ann, Minerva, Doris and Elizabeth. Of the daughters: Elizabeth, married Benjamin Bowers; Doris, married Samuel Crandel; Ann, married Mr. Sowers; and Minerva, married Mr. Farrel. Dave Barnhart married and moved to Terre Haute, Indiana; and his brother George, who never married, started down the Ohio river with a load of produce bound for Cincinnati and was never heard of again.
Christopher C. Barnhart, father of James H. Barnhart, was born in Cayuga county, New York, October 10, 1804, and died in Huntington county, Indiana, in October, 1845. He married Eliza Ann Seeley, who was born at Hartland, Niagara county, New York, January 30, 1811, and died at Wabash, Indiana, in October, 1864. They first moved to Michi- gan, where were born John, George, Mary and Elizabeth, and in the spring of 1836 moved to Huntington county, Indiana, where James H. Barnhart and another son were born.
At the age of twenty, on November 2, 1864, the late James H. Barn- hart enlisted at Indianapolis in Company I of the Forty-Sixth Indiana Infantry, and after a service of nearly a year was discharged at Louis- ville, Kentucky, September 4, 1865. Soon after the war, on June 12, 1866, he married Martha Ann Mount. She was born in Wabash county in 1847, and died November 18, 1909. Her parents were Peter and Eliza Ellen Mount. Peter Mount was born in New Jersey, April 28, 1810, was married in Miami county, Indiana, to Eliza Ellen Kidd, a sister of Major Kidd and a daughter of Edmond J. and Christina Kidd. Eliza E. Kidd was born October 23, 1824, at Connersville, Indiana. After his marriage Peter Mount moved to the farm now occupied by Elliott Smith. His father, David Mount, had acquired that place direct from the government as one of the pioneers of Wabash county, and it subsequently became the property of Peter Mount, and has always remained in the family possession. Peter Mount acquired several hundred acres, and cleared up a large part of the forest growth which originally encumbered the soil, erected log buildings, and it was in a log
Digitized by Google
-
-
Digitized by
Digitized by
679
HISTORY OF WABASH COUNTY
house that Martha, the mother of Mrs. Smith, was born. Besides this daughter there was one other child, Mary Alice, who was born in Miami county on the old Kidd farm. Peter Mount died on the present Elliott Smith place in April, 1849, and his widow subsequently returned to the Kidd farm in Miami county, married Adam Haas, and after his death Archibald Kennedy, and she spent the rest of her days in Wabash county. The old Peter Mount homestead subsequently became the prop- erty of his daughters, Martha Ann and Mary Alice.
After the marriage of James H. Barnhart and wife in 1866, they lived for a time in Peru, and he was employed in the Blue Front drug store there until 1867. Then moving to Wabash he engaged in the drug business with Mr. Haas and the firm of Barnhart & Haas continued until 1872, when it was dissolved and T. L. Barnhart became proprietor. The store was located on Canal street in Wabash. James H. Barnhart then moved to the old Mount farm, where Mr. and Mrs. Smith now live. Both passed away at that place. James H. Barnhart had for nearly forty years been a member of the Methodist church, and also affiliated with the Roann Grand Army Post.
The thirteen children of the Barnhart family were: Edith, Mrs. Smith; Fred M .; Guy S .; Charles K .; James H., deceased; Nellie May, Mrs. O. D. Steele; Robert M., deceased; Homer and Horace, twins, both of whom are deceased; Hugh W .; Howard J .; Ruth Lillian, Mrs. L. R. Burns; and Jessie, who died in infancy.
Mrs. Smith, who was born in Peru, Indiana, received her education in the schools of Wabash. She and Mr. Smith have the following chil- dren : Paul, of Fulton county, Indiana, and who married Merle Long; Nettie, who is the wife of H. D. Hartman and has a son Robert Elliott; Mount Yohe, who is called Pete; Martha Margaret.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Smith lived on his father's farm east of Manchester for a time, later spent about six years in Michigan, and on March 16, 1904, took up their residence on the old Barnhart place, where they still live. As a farmer Mr. Smith has made a success along general lines, and also conducts a dairy which is an important element in his prosperity. The family residence is one of the best in Paw Paw township, comprising twelve rooms, and was built by the late Mr. Barn- hart. Mr. Smith is a progressive republican, and he and his wife and both families have long been identified with the Methodist Episcopal church.
PHILIP KEPPEL. Industriously engaged in the prosecution of a calling upon which our nation is largely dependent, Philip Keppel is meeting with excellent success, owning one hundred and twenty-seven and one-half acres of land in Paw Paw township, about a mile south of Roann, on the east side of the Corey gravel road. A native of Indiana, he was born, August 5, 1863, in Peoria, Miami county.
His father, Philip Keppel, Sr., was born and reared in Germany, where he learned the trade of a harness maker. Immigrating to the United States as a young man, he joined an uncle in Philadelphia, where
Digitized by Google
680
HISTORY OF WARASH COUNTY
he followed his trade for a time. He subsequently lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, a few years, and then settled in Peru, Indiana, where he entered the employ of his brother-in-law, Joseph Spath, a cooper, with whom he subse- quently worked in Peoria, Indiana, making pork barrels. Starting then in business on his own account, he began the manufacture of pork barrels, which were then in great demand, and continued in business until he had a stack of barrels as high as a house. Retiring from that occupation in 1872, Philip Keppel, Sr., located in Paw Paw township, on land belong- ing to his brother-in-law, Mr. Spath, who had previously traded his farm of forty acres in Miami county to Mr. Shirk, of Peru, for the Paw Paw township land, a part of which is now included in Mr. Keppel's farm. At that time the old pike plank road cut through the farm crosswise, the farm being mostly swamp land. Mr. Spath finished clearing the land, and put up a set of log buildings. Philip Keppel, Sr., worked for Mr. Spath, living in a little house near the creek. Prudent and thrifty, he accumulated some money, and later bought forty acres of the farm from the Spath estate, and here spent the remainder of his days, dying June 22, 1909, aged seventy-five years. He married Mary Meyer, who was born in Germany, and came to America with her parents when a young girl, being several weeks crossing the ocean in a sailing vessel. She died before he did, her death occurring October 6, 1906. They reared three children, as follows: Eliza, wife of Frank Crist; Philip, the special subject of this sketch; and Joseph, of Paw Paw township, who married Amanda Rosenthal.
Philip Keppel began school in Miami county, and after coming with his parents to Paw Paw township attended the "String-town" school. Remaining with his parents until establishing a home of his own, he assisted his uncle, Mr. Spath, in clearing and improving the farm, helping to put in the first ditches, that being before the days of tile, wooden puncheons, eighteen inches in length, being used to carry off the water. Marrying, Mr. Keppel began housekeeping where his oldest son now lives, renting the land from his father, and from his uncle's widow, Mrs. Spath, finally buying out the heirs of both estates. In 1910 Mr. Keppel built his present fine house of eleven rooms, and has since occu- pied it. He follows general farming and stock-raising, finding both pleasure and profit in his work, he and his wife having begun life together without capital, and having by industry and wise management accumu- lated considerable property.
Mr. Keppel married, March 10, 1888, Mary C. Huber, a daughter of . George Huber, who came to America from Baden, Germany, his birth- place, and is now living in Peru, Indiana, a retired shoemaker. He located in Peru in pioneer days, moving from Cincinnati, Ohio, his first home in his adopted country. Peru was a small hamlet, with very few houses, when he settled there, with neither steam or electric cars any- where in the state, the old canal being then in use. He had been a resident of that place for fifty-two years when the flood came, the river being then the highest that he has ever seen it. Mr. Huber married Theresa Spath, who died in 1882, and of the twelve children born of their
Digitized by Google
681
HISTORY OF WABASH COUNTY
union, but three are living, as follows: Joseph Huber, of Detroit, Michi- gan; Mary C., now Mrs. Keppel; and Edward G. Huber, of Chicago, Illinois. Mrs. Keppel also has a half-sister, Louise, wife of John H. Miller, of Peru, Indiana.
Ten children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Keppel, namely : Chlome J .; Nellie; Louise; Hazel; Loretta; Alice; Marie; George; Cecil; and Walter LeMoyne, who died at the age of four months and eight days. Chlome J. Keppel, who lives on the old home farm, has eighty acres of his own, it being the old Jack Anderson farm. He married Clara B. Gearte, and they have one son, Charles Robert Keppel. Nellie, wife of Abraham H. Miller, who lives in Miami county, on the county line, has one son, Gene Keppel Miller. Louise is the wife of Clarence P. Maurer, a stockholder in and the manager of the telephone company at Roann.
FRANK S. CLARK. Prominent among the native-born citizens of Wabash county who have spent their lives within its precincts, aiding in every possible way its growth and development, whether relating to its agricultural, manufacturing or financial interests, is Frank S. Clark, whose birth occurred on his present farm, in Paw Paw township, July 8, 1853. His farm of one hundred and twenty acres, through which Bachelor creek runs, lies on the east side of the county line road, in the extreme southwestern corner of Paw Paw township, nine miles northwest of Wabash.
His father, Varnham N. Clark, was born in New York state, and was married in Ohio to Minerva Riddle, who was born and reared in Massa- chusetts. Soon after his marriage he started westward in search of fortune, leaving his bride in Ohio. Coming directly to Wabash county, he found work at Wabash, in the cooper shop of Mr. Mercer. He came to Indiana, on foot, with forty dollars in his pocket, and after a short time bought with Mr. Vinton as a partner 80 acres of the farm now owned by his son Frank. Clearing a space in the woods, he erected a log cabin, which was occupied for a brief time, until his wife joined him, by two hunters, Messrs. Briggs and Parsons, who hunted and looked after the owner's cattle. Mr. Clark was also an expert marksman, but was too busy to hunt, much as he enjoyed it. After his wife came to Indiana, making the trip in one of the first boats used on the canal, Varnham N. Clark moved to his farm, where he erected a cooper's shop, and worked at his trade, the only time that he followed farming to any extent having been from 1861 until 1865. He added to his original tract of land by purchase, until at the time of his death, on December 24, 1880, at the age of sixty-nine years, he had one hundred and sixty acres. He was a man of fine physique, well proportioned and tall, while his father, John Clark, a soldier in the war of 1812, was six feet, four inches, in height, and weighed three hundred pounds. John Clark was one of a family of twelve children, and the father of seven children, five sons and two daughters. Mrs. Varnham N. Clark died in 1900, at an advanced age. Five children were born of their marriage, as follows: Albert G.
Digitized by Google
682
HISTORY OF WABASH COUNTY
R., deceased; Alice died in childhood; Frank S., the special subject of this sketch; Frederick L., deceased; and Alanson B., deceased.
The first child of the parental household born in the new house erected by his father, Frank S. Clark, grew to man's estate on the home farm, acquiring his education in the district school. When a small lad he began working on the farm, at the age of nine years taking his first lessons in plowing. At the age of fourteen years he began learning the cooper's trade with his father, and followed it from time to time until 1878, when he and his father gave up the business. When but eighteen years old Mr. Clark assumed the entire management of the home farm, and for many years was actively and successfully employed in agricul- tural pursuits, making somewhat of a specialty of stock raising. For many years he was noted as a breeder of fine sheep, having been one of the first to bring full-blooded Shropshire sheep into Wabash county.
Mr. Clark married, in 1881, Emma Watts, who was born in Wabash county, Indiana, and was the adopted daughter of the late William Watts. Mr. and Mrs. Clark are the parents of six children, namely : Carey V .; Mabel, wife of Peter J. Milan, of Noble township, has one child, Minerva Milan; Thomas R., a teacher by profession, now having charge of the home farm, married Marie Shay; Harrison; Richard H .; and Alice, who is teaching school in Paw Paw township.
A life-long resident of Paw Paw township, Mr. Clark is familiar with the early history of this section of the county, and takes pride in preserving early traditions and facts. He remembers going with his father in an ox team to Wabash for supplies, often cutting the pathway through the dense woods, and he saw the building of the plank road at a later date. When his father located in this township the old "Copick" mill, an ancient landmark, was still standing, although now we see the ruins, only.
JOHN MILLER. One of the citizens of Paw Paw township who has risen from the obscurity of youth and absence of fortune into smiling prosperity and a substantial influence and esteem which go hand in hand with hard accomplishment is John Miller, the owner of one hundred and forty acres in his home township, while just across the road in Noble township Mrs. Miller, his wife, possesses eighty acres of the same quality of land.
John Miller is a native of Paw Paw township, and was born three miles north of his present farm on November 18, 1858. His parents, Jacob and Elizabeth (Hegel) Miller, after their marriage in Germany, where both were born, emigrated to the United States, and spent a while in Ohio, living on a little purchase of twelve acres near Dayton, but soon sold out and moved to Wabash county. When they arrived in this vicinity they were in very moderate circumstances, and in subsequent years won their battle with adversity through their characteristic German thrift and their ability to combine their hard work with economical management of their resources. On coming to Wabash county they bought the farm on which their son John was born. The first purchase
Digitized by Google
MR. AND MRS. JOHN MILLER AND FAMILY
O
Digitized by
.
Digitized by
-
683
HISTORY OF WABASH COUNTY
comprised only eighty acres, but subsequently with growing prosperity, the father added two other eighty-acre tracts. All the homestead was in the midst of the woods when first occupied by the Miller family, and the first habitation occupied by the parents and their children was a little log building. Subsequently that shelter was replaced with a more sub- stantial and roomier structure, and in time the improvements and con- veniences measured up to the best standard of living conditions in that vicinity. Both parents lived on the homestead in Wabash county the rest of their lives. The father passed away at the age of fifty-six, and the mother was seventy-five when called by death. Their seven children were: Henry; Jacob; Charles; John; Mary, who married Jacob Haupert; Anna, who married David Lower; and Elizabeth, the wife of Charles Carnes. All these children still live in Paw Paw township, except Henry, whose home is in Noble.
John Miller was born in the little log house that has been mentioned, grew up on the old farm, went to a district school in the winter, and employed his boyhood strength in increasing tasks, in wielding an ax to clear the woods from the land and in following the plow and assist- ing the family in gaining a living from the land. He remained at home until his marriage, which occurred on December 11, 1884. Mrs. Miller before her marriage was Marilda Hoover, a daughter of William Hoover, who married a Miss Davis. Both her parents are now deceased. To Mr. and Mrs. Miller have been born a fine family of children, men- tioned briefly as follows: Clarence, who married Prudence Downey, and has two children, Carl and Darrell; Bertha, who married Charles Shenkel, and has four children, Gladys, Arthur, Goldie and Raymond; Charles; Clara, the wife of Joseph Garrison, and the mother of one daughter, Mary; John Jr .; Elizabeth, wife of Henry Schultz; Lewis; Lawrence; Francis; Marie; and Milfred. Two of the children, Stella and an infant, are deceased.
When he made his independent start Mr. Miller for a few years con- ducted a tile factory. His father then made him a present of forty acres of land, comprising a portion of his present estate, and with that as a nucleus he has built up his present substantial property. All the substantial buildings which are now to be found on the Miller farm are the result of his management and investment, and the buildings are by no means the only improvements which he has instituted. Much of the land has been tiled, all of it has been made more productive by studious care of its fertility, and as a general farmer Mr. Miller stands in the very front ranks of Wabash county agriculturists. Mr. Miller is a stockholder in the Farmers State Bank at Urbana. He and his family worship in the faith of the German Evangelical church, and his politics is democrat.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.